Birthday Surprise

Last week my good friend asked me if I wanted to go to dinner Friday night - her husband would watch my kids. Of course I said yes! I called her Friday about an hour before I was supposed to be at her house so we could decide where we wanted to go. Because you know how it usually goes - I don't know, where do you want to go? That kind of thing. Well, she automatically said where we were going because it was close and good. I didn't think anything of it, I was just grateful someone had made a decision for me, I get tired of making all the decisions! We get to the restaurant and it's packed, people are waiting. She talks to the hostess and we walk right in - I just thought she had made a reservation. Then I saw someone from our church at a table. I tried telling my friend that there were people we knew there, but she was ignoring me. Then, we turn the corner and there are 16-18 or so people I know sitting at a table with a cake on it. Now I am thinking "why didn't we get invited to this party?" Then, they start singing Happy Birthday to me - that's when I finally figured it out! It was a surprise party for me! I feel SO incredibly blessed to have so many amazing friends in my life. It's truly a huge blessing to feel so loved and taken care of when all of my family (and husband) is thousands of miles away. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! It was a great day.

The out-of-this-world chocolate cake!

My fun gifts.

Chocolate Molten Cake Oh MY!

The below picture isn't mine, but I just made these babies and holy smokes - they are SO GOOD! They are fast, easy and satisfied my chocolate craving. The recipe makes 4, so thankfully I was able to call my sweet neighbor out of bed to eat one (seriously, she came to the door in her bathrobe), so I didn't eat 2 and have them sticking out of my thighs tomorrow morning. I hope ya'll can make this and enjoy it like we did tonight! Oh, and we served it with vanilla ice cream.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/molten-chocolate-lava-cake/

Free books??

How cool is this? Free books from Deseret Book.
http://deseretbook.com/free

Tyler's fun day

Last week the Bishop of our ward called and asked if he could take Tyler on a boy's day with him and his son. We have such a great ward, and our Bishop is seriously awesome. Tyler goes straight to the Bishop's office after primary every Sunday. He stays there for about 30 minutes - every Sunday. The Bishop plays the foot game and gives out prizes and candy. The prizes are hilarious. The Bishop has a bulletin board that he tacks paper bags to. The bag says "congratulations, you just won this junk from the Bishop's Desk." Brena has won a sprinkler head, toothbrushes from hotel rooms the Bishop has stayed at and other strange things. Tyler has won press pass cards from places the Bishop goes to for work, hot sauce packets...just funny things. But, they absolutely love winning those bags of junk! Needless to say, Tyler LOVES our Bishop. The Bishop and Nate picked Tyler up about 10:30 on Monday because there was no school. He was with them all day. They went to a thrift store just for fun, got junk food at the gas station, watched a movie and shot some hoops at the church.

Brena and I decided to do a girl's day. We ate lunch at Chick-fil-a and went to see The Princess and the Frog. We had a good time.

Brena and the toilet paper

I was in my bathroom doing my hair the other day and Brena was using the toilet. She starts complaining with this attitude in her voice that she doesn't like my toilet paper. I wish I could record her voice for you - it was SO funny. She has this really unique accent to her voice and it's just funny. Anyways here is how the conversation went:
Brena "Mom I hate this toilet paper! It's not toilet paper! It's just paper!!!"
Me: "Brena what are you talking about??"
Brena: "It's not smooth, I'm using the other bathroom, it has smooth toilet paper!"
Me: "Perfect - go use your bathroom."

So, the yellow brand tp (cheapest I can buy) is apparently "not smooth." The blue brand (still pretty cheap) is smooth.

El Salvador

Here I come!!!!!!! Yep, I have my tickets booked!! My wonderful mother-in-law has her tickets booked to come stay with the kiddos! I leave next month - 8 glorious days with my awesome hubby :) :) :)

He will still have to work, but at least I will get to see him. For 8 DAYS, with NO kids. I plan on lots of quiet time reading by the pool while he's flying.

Winter, blankets and soup

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I HATE being hot, hot weather, and humidity. I LOVE being cold - the colder the better. I wish I could live in Antarctica. My poor Floridian kiddos however, aren't doing so well in our "freakish" cold weather - as one news station puts it. It is FREEZING, literally. I don't think we have gotten over 40 degrees in almost 2 weeks now. It's kinda crazy! So my kids are living in their blankets and warm pj's and drinking lots of hot cocoa. Anything we have to read for school, we snuggle up in my bed under the covers. I wish it could last forever. Oh, and Brena said this morning "I wish there were no trees so it would snow all day." Do you ever wonder how their little brains think, and why they say the things they do? I sure do.

Because of our cold weather, I am wanting to eat lots of soup. I was reading a friend's blog the other day and she had posted they were eating this broccoli cheese soup in bread bowls from this site. I had to try it, it looked SO good. Let me tell you, holy cow - it's not just good - it's awesome!

The kids thought so too:

I do not have picky eaters - they will eat whatever is put in front of them. But I got a hug from Brena with a "thank you for making this Mommy." Now that means it's really good!

Give me S'more!

When we were in Colorado last Christmas (2008), my Grandma and I went to the LQS. They had these fabrics on clearance, so Grandma and I each bought a set. My Grandma has already made 2 quilts out of her material. I am just now getting my one quilt put together. This material is SO stinkin' cute - isn't it?? The little marshmallow snow men are s'mores! This is a twin size quilt, and I will be keeping it for us. I can't wait to snuggle up under it. Especially since we haven't even hit 40 degrees here yet today! I can't believe the cold weather we've had here the last week or so. I'm lovin' it, the kids and I spend lots of time snuggling under my covers on my bed reading books. We drank all our hot cocoa. And, for the first time in my life I bought me a pair of sweat pants and I'm wearing them every day. It's fun to bundle up for once!

New chapter in our life

If you are on goodreads with me, this probably won't come as any surprise. However, if you had told me just 1 year ago I would be homeschooling - I would have thought you were nuts! I have never even considered homeschooling - I thought it was weird (sorry!). Almost a year ago I started talking to a Mom at Brena's ballet class. She is a Mom of 4 and homeschools them all. I couldn't get the things that we talked about out of my head. I thought about it ALL the time. I thought I wanted to homeschool, but I didn't know where to start. And, I was too scared. Scared I didn't have enough patience, scared I wouldn't be able to teach my kids everything they needed to know. Scared to lose my new found Independence with both of them in school now. Well, after months of promptings to homeschool (and a little boy who begged everyday to homeschool), I started reading some books. I read The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child by Linda Dobson. It was awesome. I really, really connected with things she said. One thing I will never forget reading in there is that Public School takes time away from the Family. The other book that was recommended to me by a good friend who homeschools was The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise and Jessie Wise. This is what pushed me over the edge. I thought I would start to homeschool next year. The last day before Christmas Break, I was in Tyler's classroom volunteering. I talked to his teacher, crying the entire time, and told her Tyler wouldn't be coming back after Christmas. She was so supportive! She thought it was a wonderful idea and even mentioned she wishes she could homeschool her own daughter. That really made me feel better - but I already knew I was doing the right thing. So, here we are. It's day 2 and we are having a blast. There are many, many reasons I have chosen to do this. One, I have never felt comfortable with the Government running my child's education - that's probably the number one reason. But a very close second would be that I don't get to see my family much anymore. With homeschooling we can go wherever we want, whenever we want - and that's what I'm really looking forward to. Brenalee is still in preschool, and she will finish this year up there. But next year I will have them both home with me. I'm so excited!

Papa and the P3

My Dad wanted to build a model P3 with Tyler while he was here. It was A LOT of work. My Dad spent lots of hours building and painting it. I wish I had remembered to take a before picture right when it came out of the box. It was just plastic pieces - some very small pieces. I don't know how my Dad even put it together. Here is one of the beginning pictures:

It looks like a plane now:

Getting closer:

My Dad hung it from Tyler's bedroom ceiling:

Isn't it amazing?? I told Tyler when he goes to bed he can pretend Daddy is in his plane watching over him. He liked that.